The Tin Dog in the Scrapyard
by Emzorz
Summary: Tony discovers a strange metal dog at the scrap yard and decides to take him home and fix him up. Featuring Tony Stark and the 10th Doctor


The large bellied man scratched his nose with a greasy finger. His overalls were covered in a thick layer of oil and muck and he sat in a broken office chair. His cabin was barely big enough for him to fit in.

"We aren't really supposed to let people just come in. Health and safety."

Tony looked over his sunglasses at the man and folded his arms. He'd come dressed in his cheapest outfit in preparation, a grey hoodie and black sweatpants.

"I'll buy your little scrapping business if I have to, just let me look." Tony demanded. It had been a ridiculous mistake and one he needed to rectify quickly. A piece of the Iron Man armour had made its way to the recycling skip and had long been driven away to the junkyard before he had figured out what had happened.

He couldn't risk the piece being discovered by anyone who might recognise it and so he had come to the junkyard in person to find it.

The man shrugged then slowly leaned to one side and pressed a button to open the gates. Tony dropped his arms and went through. On either side of him were two enormous piles of scrap metal, sitting in wide trenches dug out of the ground. Ahead of him the dirt road led to coloured bins and a big warehouse.

For a regular person they would have to search for days to get through it all but Tony came prepared. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and swiped at its screen. "Wake up JARVIS. Scan everything and find my chunk of suit."

Out of his other pocket he grabbed a small device, shaped like a rounded cone. He threw it in to the air and once it hit 15 feet the device opened up to reveal 6 tiny helicopter blades. It hovered down and flew towards the biggest of the two piles.

"_Yes sir. Tracing material signatures_." The voice of JARVIS came from the phone while the tiny helicopter scanned the pile with a blue beam of light.

As JARVIS worked Tony meandered further down the track. He walked up to one of the piles and tapped at a car bumper with his foot. The minor movement caused an entire layer of metal and debris to shift downwards. Something turned over near the top of the pile, revealing what looked like a metal head with two silver ears.

Tony frowned at it, trying to determine what it could be. He juggled his phone with one hand while he stared at it. "JARVIS stop scanning for a minute and tell me what that is."

The heli-scanner fluttered towards him with a tiny hum and scanned the head. "_Unknown origin_."

"What do you mean 'unknown origin'? I don't need to know who made it just tell me what it is." The sun reflected off a thousand different surfaces, making it hard for him to focus on the uncovered object.

"_The metals and materials primarily used to build it are not in my database_."

"All right JARVIS, just get back to finding the boot." The heli-scanner flew away again and Tony shoved the phone back in his pocket. He started to make a shaky climb to where the metal head was poking out. Trying not to cause an avalanche of junk, Tony slowly picked away at whatever lay on top of the thing so that he could give it a look.

When it was free enough to move he took a hold of its "ears" and pulled it down behind him as he made his descent back down to the dirt road. Once they were back on solid ground he straightened it up and crouched in front of it to inspect it properly.

"Well look at you."

...

Tony cleared a space on his workbench and then bent down to pick up his new toy. With no small amount of effort he lifted it on to the bench, making a few groans and whimpers as he struggled with the weight.

The thing hit the bench with an enormous thunk and Tony yelped as it trapped the tip of his finger. He pulled his hand away and stuck the finger in his mouth, hoping that might relieve the pain. After a second or two he took it out again and shook his hand.

"So tell me, what are you?" What he had found was a short metal dog. The main body was the shape of a trapezoidal prism and its head was dog like and blockey. It had two tiny satellite dishes for ears and a red panel on the front where its eyes should be and a dashboard of buttons on the top.

"You are one gorgeous robot dog." He patted the thing on the side of its head. Just looking at it filled him with a childish glee. There was something nostalgic about it almost, like a long lost treasure. "A robot dog who got in a fight."

Tony shifted its large bulk so that it was facing sideways. The right side of its body had been blackened and damaged after been shot or blasted with something. He picked up a screw-driver, tossed it in to the air and caught it again. "Let's take a look inside shall we?" With great care Tony unscrewed the side panel and took it away, revealing what was underneath.

The components used were unusual and weren't like anything he'd seen before. But when he studied them as a whole, they started to make sense. Tony fixed what he could and removed anything he had a suitable replacement for. He even built a new part from scratch, creating a perfect replica of what had been there before.

By the time he started cleaning his robot dog the sky outside had darkened. As he reached for his polishing kit a chiming sound came at him from all angles. "_It's Rhodey again. Would you like to leave a voice message this time_?"

"Not now, I'll call him when I'm done." The noise halted as JARVIS cancelled the call.

Tony was very likely ticking him off. Then again, there was very little he could do that didn't annoy Rhodey in some way. So for now Tony was quite happy to sit in his workshop with only robots and computers for company. It was work he enjoyed doing and he would keep on doing it until he was finished.

By the time another hour had passed, every corner and every panel on the dog shone with new life. Tony felt as if he was bringing something back to life and for him he might as well have done. He gave the robot's nose one last wipe with his cloth before leaning it over and flicking the "on" switch.

The panels lit up, the tail jutted up and down as if wagging with joy and the satellite dish ears twitched from side to side. "Good evening. Your identity is unconfirmed. My name is K-9." Its voice was high pitched and slightly distorted. It was an odd voice but it made Tony grin all the same.

"I'm Tony Stark, it's nice to meet you K-9. Do you know where you came from?"

"A hole."

Tony frowned to hear such a vague answer. "And before that?"

"A blue box, Mr Stark. Excuse me, may I call my Master?"

"Sure if you've got a number."

"Thank you, Mr Stark."

Just as Tony opened his mouth to ask another question he heard a loud screeching sound coming from outside. There was a scratchy quality to it that made it quite unlike anything he'd heard before. Tony span on his stool and held up his hands, preparing to make the gestures that would call the Iron Man suit to him if he needed it.

Someone knocked on the door that led to the balcony. It opened and a head popped through. "Hello, I'm the Doctor. This might sound like a strange question. But have you seen my dog?" Thick brown hair stood on end, even as he held his head at an angle.

"Good evening Master." Despite little change in K-9's voice, to Tony's ear it sounded like excitement.

The Doctor's face lit up with a wide smile and he stepped inside. He wore a pin-stripe suite with a long brown coat and red converse on his feet. He jogged over to the workbench and started to pat K-9's head then tickled him behind the ears.

"K-9! I thought I'd lost you!"

Having a strange man appear on your balcony to come find his robot dog was an unusual occurance in anyone's book but Tony took it in his stride. He took a step back and started packing away his tool kit.

"Mr Tony Stark fixed me. I am very grateful to Mr Stark."

The Doctor raised his eyebrows, pursed his lips and nodded his approval. He straightened up and met eyes with Tony. "There's not many people who could do that."

"Not many people who own a robot dog with alien tech either." He pointed to K-9. "I know my metals and there are at least 3 in there I've never come across before. And the engineering is unlike anything I've ever seen before."

The two men stared at one another for a few moments, an understanding passed between them. Tony knew intelligence when he saw it especially when it was standing in front of him in his own workshop. K-9 had asked to call his master and instantly this man had appeared. Whatever had made the screeching noise was technology beyond anything else he knew. It had to be to bring him here in an instant.

The Doctor seemed to notice the suits for the first time. A pair of glasses appeared in his hands and he placed them on his nose. He walked up to the recovered MK 7 and inspected it with his hands held at his back. "These are brilliant. Did you make them all?"

"Yep. And they're just the ones on display." It was his Iron Man hall of fame. Starting from one end was the remnants of the first one he'd ever built, a hunk of plain metal and wires put together in a cave. The others exhibited a progression, an evolution of different suits for different times.

"They look like they've been through hell." They had been repaired only to a point, old battle scars could still be seen if you looked hard enough.

The Doctor turned to face him again and removed his glasses. "Have you been through hell with them I wonder?"

Tony folded his arms and smiled. "You could say that." He ruffled his hair, cleared his throat then asked, "So where did K-9 come from? I found him on a scrapheap."

The Doctor opened his mouth in shock and rushed back to his poor robot dog. "No!" he gasped. "Who put you on there eh?"

"I was asleep." K-9 chirped.

"Well, I was in the middle of trying to fix a bunch of time-holes when we were attacked by Triskuns. Then one shot K-9, he fell through one of the holes and that was it." The Doctor had gestured wildly with his hands as he recounted the story.

Once finished he stroked K-9's head as he held an expression of admiration. "So thank you. I don't think I would have found him again if you'd not fixed him up."

"I couldn't help myself. You just don't leave something like that on the junk pile. I threaten to send Dummy over there to the scrap heap," Tony pointed to the robotic arm. "Never do though." It lifted its claw as if to answer its name and whirred with curiosity.

Not many people understood Tony's connection with the things he had built in his workshop. To him every suit, every robotic arm and every update of JARVIS was a living thing, something to be treasured. And it was clear with every pat on the head and tickle behind the satellite dish that the Doctor felt the same way for his robot dog.

"Maybe K-9 should stay with you for a while," The Doctor suggested. Tony blinked in surprise.

"Really?"

"Yeah." The Doctor nodded, his hair flopping as he did so. "He needs a good home and it's too dangerous where I'm going."

"It's not exactly safe here either. There's a good 74 percent chance this house could get blown up again." Tony warned.

"Oh but you'd fix him again if you needed to wouldn't you?" The Doctor grinned. He then bent over again to be at eye level with the robot dog. "Would you like that K-9?"

"K-9 would be happy, master."

The Doctor held out his hand and Tony took it with a firm grasp. "It was good to meet you Tony Stark. Maybe next time I'll have to show you the TARDIS?"

"The blue box?" said Tony, remembering what K-9 had said earlier.

"That's the one."

"Then I look forward to it. Fly safe Slim Jim."

The Doctor gave K-9 one last pat on the head before spinning away and leaving the way he had come, waving good bye. Tony offered a final thumbs up for good luck as the Doctor disappeared through the door.

"Everybody, play nice. And K-9, welcome to the family." Tony threw open his arms and beamed down with joy at his new friend.

...

I hope you enjoyed my little whimsical story. The idea came after seeing two lovely images within a day or two of each other (credits below). After seeing them it hit me, that Tony Stark and The Doctor have a very similar love for their electronic friends. And so this little story came to mind.

The story is not intended to reference anything too heavily as I wanted to plonk you in it and still have you understand what was happening. I also feel like the Doctor could potentially frown upon the idea of weaponised suits but in the end I wanted this to be a light-hearted story about two kindred spirits meeting over a tin dog.

Tony Stark Image Credit: Feriowind - post/34958881803/tonys-pet-robo-pup-i-read-a-thing-someone-wrote

10th Doctor and K-9 image credit: jennymstead - art/Timelord-s-Best-Friend-427436868

Story originally posted by me on Wattpad: story/12472659-the-dog-in-the-scrap-yard-one-shot-iron-man


End file.
